The Swapped Club
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1822. Santana knows she can't mess this up, and if she's going to have an ally, then she chooses to have Kurt fill the role. - Berry-St series - 5TH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE, day 16 of 21.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 86th cycle. Now cycle 87!_

**_IT'S THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE OF_**_** GLEEKATHON!** - Five years! Five years! *insert flailing* Okay, not quite, but by the end of this cycle, it will have been five years of daily stories (sometimes twice a day! ... and for seven very frightening days a couple years back, three times a day!). It will also be the end of this crazy ride. I started thinking about ending gleekathon months ago, and I wanted to finish my ongoing series before that happened. It made it so I could finish out this fifth year, and it couldn't be any better that this cycle is actually ending on October 22nd 2014, which was the day it began, in 2009... Now here we go!_

**This story is 'Additional scenes' for _To A New World_, a Berry-St series story originally posted on June 9th 2014.**

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><p><strong>"The Swapped Club"<br>Santana, Kurt  
>Berry-St series<strong>

"Didn't you have somewhere to be?"

Kurt had just gotten up, figuring it was about time he headed back to class, when he found Santana had returned. She'd stomped off just minutes ago, after what had started off as a nice enough conversation, and he'd let her. He didn't know this version of her too well yet, but he didn't see his running after her getting him anywhere. But she was here now, so maybe he hadn't been too far off, had he? And there was something in her face, like she'd had a drastic change of heart. She was being repentant.

"Look, I'm new with this…"

"I know," Kurt nodded. "I was, too, not long ago." He'd never seen her like this. Whatever was going on with her all of a sudden, it had brought her back to him and to his offer of confidence, when this situation of theirs got to be too much to keep in to herself.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do with all this yet," she admitted.

"Okay..."

"And I'm not looking for any help figuring out."

"Sure."

"But I..." she paused, sighed. "Let's just say there are some people who were separated because of me. And I don't want to be the reason they stay that way. Whatever I need to do to help, to make sure everyone gets to go home, I think I'm going to need you, for moral support or something."

"Moral support?" Kurt gave her a look.

"Easy, Jiminy," she warned. He smiled.

"Alright," he finally agreed. "So maybe step one would be get back to class? Getting busted for skipping out isn't going to help get anyone anywhere they want to be."

"Yeah, I hear that," she frowned, but they started back into the school. "You ever go and sit in class, when you were over there, in… well, in my world… and you looked at the teacher and you thought…"

"You are not even the same person, except you are, except you're not?" Kurt guessed.

"Yes!" Santana smacked his arm; that was exactly what she'd meant to say.

"Ow!" he frowned, rubbing at his arm.

"Sorry," she tried not to laugh. "But you know what I mean, and you have no idea how good that feels, or… I guess you do, kind of…"

"I'm not the only one, am I? There's Mike, and Quinn, and that Jesse guy… And Rachel, too, I mean she…" Kurt counted the names off. At the last one though, Santana tensed.

"I'd rather leave her out of this, if you don't mind. Actually, I'd like to keep most people out of it, and since you're already in…"

"Then I get the 'pleasure' of being on your receiving end?" he pointed to his arm.

"I said I was sorry, didn't I? This whole thing, since I got thrown in here… it messed me up a lot. I try not to let it freak me out too much, but then things happen, like they did back in class today. I'm not just going around all woe is me on everyone's shoulders. All I ask is for you to… have my back. I'll have yours, too," she promised. "Even if you're back where you belong, doesn't mean you don't need it."

Kurt knew what she meant, of course he did, and he'd told her as much before, when they'd just been sitting together, in peace, outside. He remembered his first days, after he'd been thrown into that other place. He remembered looking around and, sometimes, for minutes, here and there even hours, he would forget. He would think he was still at home, in his own world, and nothing was wrong. And then he'd see something, someone, and he would be forced to see where he really was. He had felt anxiety, and as much as he kept it boxed in, it was there. He didn't know what it was that had allowed for him to be returned here to his own world, but he was relieved. It was over… except it wasn't. The others hadn't gotten to go home yet, and now… now Santana had been added to their numbers, to those who had been swapped.

"Can I ask you something?" he looked at her. She gave a weary nod. "I get what you're saying, about how you've already been talking to me, but… from everything I've seen and heard, I thought you and Mike were close, over there. He's here now, same as you. Why not go to him?" Santana hesitated.

"You saw what he went through over there, what he lost, what… what we all lost. You were there, for a little while, but you don't know… We'll all get to go home, if it works out, and he'll have to lose it all again. I'm not going to him, because he should be able to have as much time to himself as he can, not thinking about getting back to the place where he doesn't have a leg anymore."

"Oh…" Kurt looked at her, and he saw it, the very thing that had sent her scurrying out of class. He could see her… otherness. It wasn't exactly the same as with teachers, and people on the street, and the bag boy at the grocery store. This Santana and the one who belonged here were more distinct, had lived different lives, had experienced different things, some more traumatic than others. Even then, anyone who looked at her would need to actually know that this Santana was not that Santana, just as they'd have to know that this random person was that random person, which they did, Santana and him, because they'd seen both sides.

"Stop, hey, you're giving me that face," she pointed at him. "I will smack you again if you don't…" He looked away. "… stop."

"Sorry, I… I can see it, in you, it's so…"

"I know," she sighed. "I can see it in you, too. I mean I see it now. You're the same guy that was in my world the last few weeks. My Kurt, he was a lot more boxed in than you are."

"More like closeted in," Kurt took a breath. He thought about his lookalike, more than he cared to admit, about the differences in his life, and what it would mean for him to be back in his world again. There was nothing he could do, to contact him, to help him… "Okay, so maybe you're right. Maybe… I need someone on my side, too."

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>**always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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